Many people believe that the issue of an agreed common language
or lingua franca for international communication has in practice been
solved. They point to the widespread adoption of English in
tourism, education, commerce and international activities across the
world. However this state of affairs is creating a fundamentally unjust and discriminatory system. Native speakers of English are privileged but everyone else must spend years learning it. This situation is brought about
by economic pressures, largely unregulated and not subject to democratic
control. It grants privileges to native
speakers of English and requires everyone else to spend years trying
to acquire English. Even then they may remain at a disadvantage
to native speakers. Meanwhile their own languages and cultures
become second class and increasingly disadvantaged on the world stage.
This is true also for varieties of English, which differ from the
dominant version spoken in the United States of America, the world's
most powerful economy.

The adoption of the fairer solution offered by Esperanto
requires a wider and deeper appreciation of the destructiveness of
currently uncontrolled forces. The Esperanto movement
has most recently set out the context for an equitable and efficient
solution in its Prague Manifesto, reprinted here.
The qualities of the Esperanto language itself are referenced within
these web pages in the section labelled 'Language'. Alongside
are listed some more immediate Association aims.